BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – RNA transcription is the genomic process in which a cell produces a duplicate of a gene’s DNA sequence. In a study published in Nucleic Acids Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Chemistry Professor Jun Zhang, Ph.D., and his team reveal how the protein SRSF1 possesses the novel function of binding and unfolding complex RNA Guanine-quadruplexes. Present in both DNA and RNA sequences, a G-quadruplex (GQ) is a structure of four guanine bases attached in a planar array. ...

Osteoporosis, a condition characterized by porous and fragile bones, poses a significant threat to skeletal health. As the very framework of the human body, bones provide crucial structural support. When bone mass diminishes, it not only compromises this support but also impairs overall function, leading to a diminished quality of life. With the aging population experiencing a surge in osteoporosis cases, the strain on healthcare resources for long-term care is evident. Hence, there is a need to understand the mechanisms that contribute to osteoporosis and develop effective targeted therapies ...

Transgender individuals often face unique challenges in aligning their physical bodies with their true gender identity. Among the various methods employed, gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) stands as a vital means for transgender men to achieve physical changes in consonance with their gender identity. Navigating the complexities that come with gender transition, transgender individuals seek medical interventions to alleviate gender dysphoria and align their bodies with their gender identity. For transgender men, testosterone therapy holds promise in inducing masculinizing effects such as increased muscle mass, cessation of ...

Recommendations designed to reframe the evaluation of in vitro diagnostic tests have been published today by the Royal Statistical Society in its Series A journal.   The report, which will be submitted to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, is intended to help prevent future scenarios in which IVDs are marketed widely, but later attract serious concerns about the standards applied to their evaluation.   The research was prompted by concerns about the standards applied to the evaluation of diagnostic tests during the Covid-19 pandemic – particularly lateral flow tests – however the recommendations cover all new tests, especially those ...

Fossils found on the shoreline of Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe represent a completely new dinosaur species. This remarkable find, named Musankwa sanyatiensis, marks only the fourth dinosaur species named from Zimbabwe. The research detailing this significant discovery is set to be published in the prestigious journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The study was conducted by an international team of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Stony Brook University in New York and was led by Prof Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum ...

BOSTON –  A new study led by investigators from Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, reveals that statins—commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs—may block a particular pathway involved in the development of cancer that results from chronic inflammation. The findings are published in Nature Communications. “Chronic inflammation is a major cause of cancer worldwide,” said senior author Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD, a principal investigator at the Center for Cancer Immunology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center of Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of Dermatology at ...

The process of aging is accompanied by a decline in physiological functions, which can lead to cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and metabolic diseases. Aging of cells, also known as ‘cellular senescence’— is a process in which a cell ages and permanently stops dividing but does not die. The accumulation of such ‘senescent’ cells in tissues is then known to contribute to age-associated diseases. Elimination of senescent cells or ‘senolysis’ can, therefore, serve as an effective therapeutic strategy for the improvement of physiological function and prevention ...

New findings on long COVID — long-term effects on health experienced by many who have had COVID-19 — present a good-news, bad-news situation, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care system. The bad news: COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized within the first 30 days after infection face a 29% higher risk of death in the third year compared with people who have not had the virus. However, the three-year death risk still marks a significant decline compared with such risk at the one- and two-year marks post-infection. The findings also show that even people with mild COVID-19 were still ...

Osaka, Japan – The compound of iron and aluminum with the chemical formula Fe3Al has some very useful mechanical properties. A team from Osaka University has combined simulations with experimental techniques to better understand the kinetics of the formation of microstructures to enhance and utilize these properties and how to harness them for specific applications. In a study recently published in Acta Materialia, the researchers took an in-depth look at the way the microstructure of Fe3Al develops because the ordered domains that form contribute to one of its key properties: superelasticity. When high loads are applied to superelastic materials they ...

 Through joint research with Professor Chul-jin Ahn’s team at Changwon National University, the research team of Dr. Jae-Ho Kim and Dr. Myung-kwan Song from the Department of Energy & Electronic Materials in the Surface & Nano Materials Division has developed a 4-Amino-TEMPO derivative with photocatalytic properties and successfully used it to produce high-performance and stable fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) and fiber-shaped organic light-emitting diodes (FOLEDs). The developed 4-Amino-TEMPO derivative has the characteristic of simultaneously improving the performance of both fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) and fiber-shaped ...

WASHINGTON -- New research conducted with Washington, DC, residents who experienced homelessness during pregnancy sheds light on the intersection of homelessness, pregnancy, and racial inequities. The findings underscore the urgent need for policy and practice changes to support vulnerable populations. The study, published May 30, 2024 in the journal Health Equity (DOI: 10.1089/heq.2023.0235), is grounded in a reproductive justice framework and delves into the lived experiences of 20 DC residents who faced homelessness while pregnant. Homelessness ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In a head-to-head comparison of masks worn by people with active COVID-19, the inexpensive “duckbill” N95 came out on top, stopping 98% of COVID-19 particles in the breath of infected people from escaping into the air. Led by researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health (SPH), results showed other masks also performed well, blocking at least 70% of viral particles from escaping from the source – an infected person’s exhaled breath. The study, Relative efficacy of masks and respirators as source control for viral aerosol shedding from people infected with SARS-CoV-2, published May 29 in eBioMedicine, a Lancet ...

Cultivating creativity in schools is vital for a future driven by artificial intelligence (AI). But while teachers embrace creativity as an essential 21st century skill, a lack of valid and reliable creativity tests means schools struggle to assess student achievement.   Now, a new machine-learning model developed by the University of South Australia is providing teachers with access to high-quality, fit-for-purpose creativity tests, that can score assessments in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost.   Applied to the current ...

The deep degradation of organic pollutants through solar light-coupled photocatalysis and the Fenton reaction (Photo-Fenton) holds significant importance in the field of water purification. In this study, a novel bifunctional catalyst (Fe-PEI-CN) was synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly and hydrothermal methods, doping graphene-like carbon nitride (CN) with polyethyleneimine (PEI) and iron (Fe) species. This catalyst efficiently degraded p-chlorophenol (p-ClPhOH) by generating hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during the photocatalytic process. The relationship between catalytic efficiency and structure was explored using various characterization techniques.Under ...

Tumour protein P53 (TP53) plays an important role in suppressing the growth of tumours. Mutations in the gene for TP53 can have a disastrous effect, hampering the body's ability to fight tumours and even encouraging their growth. Because these are the most common mutations in cancers, TP53 has long been an interesting therapeutic target. However, efforts to destroy the mutant protein have been hampered by the difficulty of finding a way to bind to it. Now, a team of researchers from Xi'an ...

New Curtin University research reveals taking pictures of food isn’t just content for our social media feeds, but could be the key to improving people’s diets.   Published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the feeding study saw researchers measure the weight of meals, which were then provided to participants over a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   Participants compared different technology-assisted methods to recall what they had eaten over the past 24 hours.    One method asked participants to take photos of their meals using the mobile Food Record app.   These ...

On-site pathology tests for infectious diseases in rural and remote locations can be just as reliable and accurate as tests carried out in a hospital laboratory, a new report from Flinders University shows. Flinders University researchers tested the quality of on-site pathology testing, or Point-of-Care-Testing (POCT), for molecular-based, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection in over 100 remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia. “Our study demonstrates that when point-of-care testing models are effectively established and managed, the quality of pathology results can be equivalent to ...

Carolyn C. Meltzer, MD, dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, has been appointed to the board overseeing the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). CIRM is the voter-created agency that funds stem cell research throughout the state. “Stem cell research holds the tremendous promise to unlock health solutions that patients need,” said Steven D. Shapiro, MD, USC’s senior vice president for health affairs. “The CIRM board—and the people of our state—will benefit greatly from Meltzer’s wide-ranging leadership experience and place at the ...

Antibiotics prevent snails from forming new memories by disrupting their gut microbiome - the community of beneficial bacteria found in their guts.     The new research, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in collaboration with Aberystwyth University, highlights the damaging effects that human pollution could be having on aquatic wildlife.   In the study, pond snails were given a favourite food – carrot juice – but had to quickly learn and remember that it was no longer safe to eat.     Snails ...

STARKVILLE, Miss.— A Mississippi State faculty member’s work on symbiosis—a mutually beneficial relationship between living organisms—is pushing back against the newer theory of a “single-origin” of root nodule symbiosis (RNS)—that all symbiosis between plant root nodules and nitrogen-fixing bacteria stems from one point—instead suggesting a “multiple-origin” theory of symbiosis which opens a better understanding for genetically engineering crops. Ryan A. Folk, an assistant professor in the MSU Department of Biological Sciences and herbarium curator, is an author on a paper published this month in Nature ...

Shortly after artificial intelligence models including Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E went public, AI-generated art started winning competitions: one in digital art, another in photography. Concern rumbled that AI could replace artists — and even, by some metrics, be more creative than humans. But simultaneously, people were exploring these tools as ways to augment their creative processes, not replace them. University of Washington researchers grew curious about how AI might affect creativity in children, specifically, so they worked with a group of 12 Seattle-area kids ages seven to 13 to explore how the kids’ creative processes interacted ...

Moisés A. Bernal, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University, is collaborating with researchers Kathleen Lotterhos (Northeast University), Megan Phifer-Rixey (Drexel University), and Torrance Hanley, (Sacred Heart University) to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual lab meetings in demystifying the hidden curriculum in academia, incentivize primary research among students without previous experience, and foster participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. The “Biological Practices” article entitled A virtual lab meeting training program mutually benefits mentees and host labs was recently published ...

May 29, 2024 Boosters that target the omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 are still providing reasonably durable protection against infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19, according to new data from a study led by researchers at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that COVID-19 boosters targeting the XBB.1.5 subvariants were most effective one month after receiving one. After four weeks, the vaccines were 52.2% effective at preventing infection and 66.8% effective at preventing hospitalization. The vaccines were also highly effective ...

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State faculty member’s work on plant life symbiosis—a mutually beneficial relationship between living organisms—is pushing back against the newer theory of “single-origin”—that all life stems from one point—instead suggesting “multiple-origin” theory which opens a better understanding for genetically engineering crops. Ryan A. Folk, an assistant professor in the MSU Department of Biological Sciences and herbarium curator, is an author on a paper published this month in ...

Three Huntsman Cancer Institute researchers have recently been recognized for their work as outstanding faculty members at the University of Utah (the U). Kim Kaphingst, ScD, director of cancer communication research at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of communication at the U, and June Round, PhD, investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of microbiology and immunology at the U, were both granted the 2024 Distinguished Research Award. The faculty prize is given annually to scholars who exemplify exceptional research.  Kaphingst’s group explores cancer communication, particularly how to educate patients and families who ...